trick or treat
by discursive
Summary: Written for the Halloween Fic-Exchange. To Alex  carpenoctem-x  - In which a new meaning of "Trick or Treat" has been taught to the seemingly dark girl and the opposite boy.


_**trick or treat**_

_**-x-**_

**note****: for the Halloween fic-exchange. To carpenoctem-x (Alex). ooc-ness, au-sort of. meh. Layne-centric. enjoy?**

**pairing****: Losh (?..) Layne x Josh, sort of.**

**prompts****: leather jackets, "believe in magic, you muggle", fishtail braids, pep assemblies**

…

"Let's go, Tigers, let's go!" the cheerleaders repeated the mantra over and over, do some strange thing that had to involve a whole lot of twisting in ways that Layne Abeley didn't quite understand, nor want to try the whole deal in the first place. She was actually starting to wonder what had possessed her to show up at the damn thing in the first place.

"So tell me, what is someone like _you_ doing at something like _this_?" Josh Hotz enquired, gazing at her with a confused expression. She felt an odd disturbance, like he'd just read her mind. Then again, people said she was an odd book- only open to those she trusted; or, subconsciously trusted, considering she had never even debated if one of the morons in her school was trustworthy in the first place, aside from Olivia Ryan, of course.

"Does it even matter why I'm here? You know, compared to why you're talking to me, of course," Layne retorted wryly, her tone flat and dry, but laced with some kind of crude, inconceivable humor.

"Layne!" Olivia cried, stepping into the situation and throwing her leather jacket clad arms around the somewhat aggressive girl. No matter where she was, Olivia was wearing something leather. A vest, pants, but most often a jacket. This time, it was red. Not blood red, or cherry red, but some kind of elusive shade; a come-hither with a hint of do-you-know-what-the-hell-you're-about-to-walk-into.

"Who's this?" Josh continued, evidently not even the slightest bit surprised that some chick had just ran full-force into a conversation that was meant for the day that pigs flew and Hell froze over.

"Who else? I'm Olivia, leader of the anti-pep squad, and smiling extraordinaire. I've worked hard, so you better enjoy it," she warned, before grinning brightly again.

"_Pep squad_? Since when do we have _that_?" Josh replied, looking a bit disturbed at the thought.

"Here's the thing… uh, person-with-face, there's the cheerleaders, and the anti-pep squad. Don't be fooled by the name though, it riles these damn people up like you wouldn't believe," Layne chuckled.

"I don't know why I come to these," Josh sighed. "I mean, if you don't know, I play hockey…" But his comment was lost on Layne who was looking upon Olivia with fond annoyance.

"Let's be clear on this, I don't care what you think, Liv, but I am _never_ coming to this 'pep assembly' shit again," she stated, shuddering lightly. The black, pink, and lime green hair on her head shook slightly with a violent head shake.

**-^-v-^-v-^-**

"Believe in magic, you _muggle_!" Layne screamed at the TV, throwing a handful of Orville Redenbacher's kettle corn at the TV. Josh jumped slightly, turning to stare at her.

No one was quite sure what had happened. Josh had kept mysteriously (and sometimes suspiciously, for that matter) shown up near Layne for the past month. The peculiar, and perhaps multi-personality-suffering, teenage boy had grown on her and pretty soon they were, dare I say it, _friends_. You know, or something similar to that. Nobody, not Layne, not Josh, and certainly not Olivia, were sure what you could call it.

Anyway, it was almost Halloween, and they'd bought out what was probably half of downtown White Plains' candy supply and started the epic Harry Potter marathon. They could've waited for Halloween, yes, but they had a party for then. Olivia was curled up against Harris Fisher's chest, watching the screen with blatant concentration. Layne seemed to be leaning towards the TV, and had already been stopped by Josh twice before she could fall on her face.

Josh just shook his head at the girl and popped a DOT into his mouth. Harris ruffled the blonde's hair before he stood up to go and take care of human nature, or at least that's what he said he was doing. Chances are he was really just trying to get away from Harry's fantasies about Cho Chang and get a breath of fresh air.

"Do you really believe in magic?" Josh asked Layne, raising an eyebrow with apparent curiosity.

Layne jolted and turned to glare at him, before realizing his question and pondering her answer silently for a moment. "I believe that there are all sorts of magic, but only certain people know what they are."

**-^-v-^-v-^-**

"Really, Josh? Really?" Layne repeated. It was the third time she'd said it.

Olivia was standing by the side with a humored smirk, white leather-clad arms folded across her chest and zebra print high heel-covered foot tapping in anticipation. Josh was currently attempting (key word: _attempting_) to put Layne's hair into a fishtail braid. Needless to say, his attempt at some sort of hairstyle on the eclectic (and naturally brunette, not that she'd kept it that color long enough for anyone to know) teenager was failing.

"_She_ told me to," Josh reminded, gesturing towards Olivia.

Layne let out a heavy sigh and popped a mini Sharpie from the clip it was hooked to on the belt loop of her white and black ripped skinny jeans. She proceeded to take it and draw little stick men in the middle of what might have been a war or a birthday party on one of the empty white spaces on her pants. The white spaces featured various scenes, and the black had differing words in silver.

There was a pause in the conversation, Josh not-so-nimbly twisting the strands of hair that had all been died midnight blue, Olivia popping her gum and checking up on her Facebook via iPhone, and Layne drawing an obscene picture on her pants.

"Done!" he proclaimed proudly, twisting a rainbow hair tie at the bottom and admiring it.

"Worst. Fishtail braid. Ever," Olivia declared, laughing at his pout and turning to walk away, presumably to find Harris.

"Lovely. Just lovely," Layne grumbled, patting the back of her head with a grimace.

**-^-v-^-v-^-**

"Boo!"

A scream was heard, following the simple word out of Josh's mouth and Layne whipped around, glaring at him. "Seriously?" she growled and he laughed at her expression.

"Happy Halloween. Now come with me, Shorty." He promptly led her into the darkness of the haunted house before she could protest and possibly whack him upside the head.

"…What the hell was that?" Layne screamed, earning a few dirty looks, a couple jumping people, and a deep chuckle from Josh.

"Jumpy, are we? And that scary sight would be Massie Block, putting on lip gloss whilst using the silver platter that skeleton wife is holding as a mirror," he stated.

Midway through the dreary, ominous interior of the haunted house, a crowd of "zombies" pushed through and people shoved past, girls giggling and clinging to guys between yelps. Layne got shoved flush against Josh in the middle of the crowd. The problem? Their near exact matching heights presented the problem in which their heads were pushed together. It was a good thing that Layne hated high heels above anything, and refused to wear them even once.

Josh pulled away from where their lips had been connected and grinned almost cheekily. "Jeez, I thought we were eating candy later but I definitely just got a treat, because that was no trick," he declared, and pulled her into the midst of the crowd again. Layne, meanwhile, was still very confused.

Trick or treating had just gotten a whole new meaning.

**-x-**

**So, uhm, I know that was kind of… yeah. Sorry about that, Alex :/ Writer's block is a major pain when it hits you at a moment like this. Anyhoo, Happy Halloween.**

**-Splattered Teardrops**


End file.
